‘His evolution is insane!’ – How Manchester United target Christopher Nkunku became one of Europe’s best goalscorers

So far this season just four players have scored 30 goals or more in all competitions across Europe’s top five leagues. Robert Lewandowski leads the way with an almost comical 47. Karim Benzema is second on 38, followed by Kylian Mbappe on 31.

Ad/> No surprises so far, right? /> Europa League‘I am ashamed’ — Laporta after Frankfurt fans take over Camp Nou4 HOURS AGO Well you might be surprised to learn that in fourth place, with 30 goals across all competitions, is Christopher Nkunku of RB Leipzig. What makes this so surprising is two-fold, and they are linked. Firstly, before this season Nkunku had never reached double figures for goals, let alone 30.

And second, the reason for the first, is that he was primarily seen as a box-to-box midfielder, creative attacking mid, or even as a winger but definitely not a forward. So to try and figure out what has happened with his explosion we got in contact with two people. Robert Bauer from Eurosport Germany to talk his sudden growth with RB Leipzig, and Fabien Esvan of Eurosport France who followed his time with Paris Saint-Germain closely.

/> Let’s go back to the beginning to start with, Nkunku is one of a host of players across Europe who came through PSG’s youth academy, but went elsewhere in search of playing time. Kingsley Coman, Moussa Diaby, Ferland Mendy, Boubakary Soumare and Mike Maignan (amongst others) say hello. “He was not considered as one of the «top» prospects when he was in the PSG Academy,” recalls Esvan.

“Of course, he was special, a hard-worker and everybody knew he would be very, very good as his former coach Laurent Bonadei told us. He developed his skills a lot and he's always had a high mentality. “But I would not say PSG fans were upset when he left.